Fly for free

Imagine stepping into a small aircraft, closing the canopy, rolling down the runway, ascending into the clear blue sky, flying for 270 miles and landing, and all of that didn’t use up one single drop of gasoline, diesel or other chemical fuel? Sound like a future scenario? Maybe this will happen in 30 years?

Nope, it’s happening now.

Prof. Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann and his team at Stuttgart University have designed and built an aircraft that can do all that, and it’s flying now. The aircraft — called icaré 2 (French, for Icarus) — is extremely light-weight, closely resembling a glider, and has a 25m/82ft wingspan. Atop the wings is an almost continuous array of solar panels. These charge batteries, which drive an electric motor that drives a prop, which is used for take-off and whenever extra lift might be needed during the flight. The icaré 2 can maintain level flight just from energy obtained from the solar panels alone.

By using the solar panels to charge the batteries initially, the entire flight can be done not just without conventional fuel, but totally “off the grid.”

All the electric aircraft I have previously described typically use a wall-charger to power up their batteries, which means coal or oil was probably burned to create that electricity. To me, the beauty of the icaré 2 is that it’s completely free of all of that… it’s completely independent.

Ok, well, independent of anything man-made, but not independent of the sun, that’s for sure. Is it practical? No. But just in a few short decades of people experimenting with electric flight, it’s come to this point where an entire flight — of significant distance, no less — can be done 100% solar. And calling it “solar powered” has more meaning than just the use of solar panels… since it is, after all, a glider, it can use the solar heating and thermals to help gain altitude and stay aloft.

In September 2010, German pilot Klaus Ohlmann set two records by taking off and flying more than 370km/230mi in the icaré 2. This year, he made an out-and-return flight of 384 km/238 mi, and one with three declared waypoints of 439 km/273 mi.

Being a research aircraft, it isn’t practical, but it brings new understanding and competency in the field of electric flight, and is truly a significant milestone.